The invention relates to vertically mounted decorative banners, typically mounted on city street poles and more particularly, the invention relates to brackets by means of which the banners may be so mounted.
The current mounting technique for such banners is to mount such a banner vertically with the top horizontal edge of the banner and also the bottom horizontal edge each being provided with a hem that runs the entire width of the banner and allows a banner arm to be inserted into the entire length of the hem. Such a banner arm is typically a fiberglass rod or a steel tube mounted at 90.degree. to a short bracket base which may be 5 to 7 inches (12.7 to 17.7 cm.) in length. This mounting may be of a permanent nature, a steel banner arm being welded at 90.degree. to the bracket base. The banner arm may also be of a removable nature with a fiberglass rod or steel tube inserted into a female socket or nipple, usually 2 inches in depth. In each case, the bracket base is fixed to the city street pole, such as by stainless steel strips that extend around the bracket base and around the pole although, in some cases, the bracket base is bolted onto the city street pole. If the banner arm is of the removable type, it is held in place by means of a pin extending diametrically through the banner arm and through matching holes drilled into and through the bracket base. Alternately, the banner arm may be attached to the bracket base by being threaded into the bracket base.
Removable banner arms are usually preferred, as banners are usually mounted for just a season (3 months), and when the banners are not in use, the detachable arms can be taken down easily with the banners, thereby leaving only the bracket bases attached permanently to the post. Brackets with permanently attached banner arms tend to be unsightly, with the two upper and lower banner arms sticking out approximately 30 inches (76.2 cm.) for example, at 90.degree. to the pole. It is not feasible to mount and dismount the entire bracket each time the banner is to be removed, since the base must be very securely mounted to the pole.
The two mostly used vertical banner mounting systems are brackets with fiberglass rod banner arms and brackets with steel tube banner arms. The fiberglass arms are preferred since they flex up to approximately 4 inches (10.1 cm.) (with a banner of approximately 30 inches, 76.2 cm. for example), thereby offering a limited cushioning of wind gusts, but they do not flex enough to spill off high wind forces exerted against such a banner. High winds on a standard size large banner of approximately 30 inches (76.2 cm.), for example, can create forces in the 400 pound (181 kg.) per banner range, and without the capability of the banner being able to tip with the wind, this force is directly transferred to banner hem, banner arm, bracket base, and stainless steel strips, and finally to the pole.
With such a banner being mounted to a vertical city street pole, wind gusts result in tearing and destruction of such a banner, with the banner being torn and shredded so that it is eventually torn from the banner arms and lies in shreds on the ground beneath the arms. This is particularly true if the banner arms are fixed with respect to the bracket bases, although this same effect occurs when fiberglass banner arms are used which flex to some extent. The limited cushioning provided by the flexible fiberglass rod banner arms allows a greater wind effect being exerted on such a banner but is not sufficient to prevent destruction of such a banner with higher wind forces.
Prior to the present invention, the destructive effect of high winds on such banners has been reduced by mounting each fiberglass banner arm in a base plate which is held onto a bracket base by means of a spring. The base plate and bracket base are provided with planar surfaces held in contact by means of the spring, and the arrangement of the planar surfaces and spring allows a limited movement of the base plate receiving a banner rod with respect to the bracket base so that the combined effect of the flexing of the fiberglass rods and limited movement of the base plates with respect to the bracket bases protects the banner from destruction in winds that are not unduly great.